1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a still image recording and reproducing system.
2. Related Background Art
In the Electronic Still Video Meeting held recently, a format for recording still images on a small size magnetic disk, i.e., a still video floppy, was prescribed. In the prescribed format, one field of an image signal is recorded on a single circular track, while one frame of a video signal is recorded using two tracks.
An electronic still camera is proposed and commercialized, which uses such a still video floppy as an image recording medium for recording still images picked up by a solid-state image pickup element. Such an electronic still camera, like a conventional still camera using silver chloride film as the recording medium, has a serial copy mode.
In such an electronic still camera with such a serial copy function, in a serial copy mode a video signal of the picked-up image is recorded on the still video floppy, while for monitoring a picked-up image, a signal prior to recording on the still video floppy is output to an electronic view finder or like image monitor.
With such an arrangement, however, the image that is observed with the image monitor in the serial copy mode is not always the same as the image recorded on the still video floppy. This means that confirmation of the recorded image requires an operation of setting up a reproduction mode, moving a magnetic head to a track on which the intended image is recorded, and reproducing the recorded image. This is very inconvenient.
It may be thought to arrange the systems such that immediately after recording on the still video floppy in serial copy mode, the recorded signal is reproduced and output to the image monitor to permit observation and confirmation of the recorded image itself. In such case, however, the serial copy speed is limited by the time required for the reproduction.
An object of the invention is to provide a recording and reproducing system which can solve the above problems.
Another object of the invention is to provide a system which permits satisfactory reproduction of a recorded image even in the serial copy mode.
To attain the above objects of the invention, there is provided a still image recording and reproducing system for recording still images on a recording medium and reproducing these recorded images therefrom, which is provided with control means for automatically reproducing the image last recorded in a serial copy mode, thus permitting simple confirmation of the recorded image in a case when continuously recording a plurality of still images as in the serial copy mode.
A further object of the invention is to provide a recording and reproducing system which provides satisfactory operation control properties even when it is desired to reproduce an image for confirmation immediately after the image is picked up.